The college’s public web presence is composed of several websites. There are three main websites: www.daemen.edu, my.daemen.edu, and hub.daemen.edu. Web Development’s work is conducted largely on my.daemen.edu and hub.daemen.edu and also assists with the maintenance of www.daemen.edu.
The MyDaemen portal received a significant portal upgrade in September 2019. Features included a more intelligent and curated search, responsive design, various modules, access permissions, and alerts. The portal launched with over 25 custom created modules. Modules have dynamic and function assembled content and from various existing MyDaemen database. Examples are the Courses, Athletics, Dining, and Cancellations. There are many static modules such as Faculty, Library, and Employees which are essentially friendly lists of links. Third-party data such as the Google Drive and Google Calendar are derived via API data. Modules Admin
MyDaemen Portal
The visual layout of my.daemen.edu is a responsive design that was implemented in September of 2019. When the display is full width, the navigation is on a vertical bar on the left and the main search is along the top. The upper left corner will have the account’s photo.
Typical MyDaemen page layout in full screen
The mobile version of the site features the main content in the window by default with a menu icon in the upper left. When the menu icon is tapped search and menu navigation becomes visible.
Typical MyDaemen page layout mobile width
Typical MyDaemen search layout mobile screen
Nearly All MyDaemen systems have been reskinned to include the new navigation and search layout. As lesser-used systems are reviewed they are reskinned.
ElasticSearch is the service at the core of the search new portal and all MyDaemen pages. It is a separate service running on the same web server. PHP classes have been installed and SQL-like statements are used to insert, update, and delete data into the service. After a string of text is input in the search bar, the string is parsed into search terms and queried in various ways against the elastic’s database. Any system an account has access to will be displayed. Sources of data include all MyDaemen Systems, department and offices, A to Z listings, and all members of the directory.
Search Results
Alerts have been integrated into all MyDaemen pages. Alerts can be bell, banner, or full screen. They can have various levels and can be determined by function. Alerts Admin
Bell Alert
Search Results, MyDaemen Systems Menu, Modules, and Alerts can all be assigned to all users, specific OUs, specific Active Directory groups, or individuals.
Access control and navigation to individual MyDaemen systems were unified under one MyDaemen Systems Menu Admin system. This allows centralized access control and sub-navigation of systems to controlled under one system. This data was then used for the MyDaemen search. MyDaemen Systems Menu Admin
dev.daemen.edu is the development environment for my.daemen.edu. It is configured with PHP 7.1 and MySQL 5.5. Dec. 2017, only currently used systems and apps were moved over leaving behind unused code and data. There were significant space savings and peace of mind knowing that old, possibly insecure code was not moved over.
Private git repositories are used for version control for My and Dev. Typically code is created, developed, and test on Dev. It is “push”ed to GitHub, then “pull”ed to My for deployment.
hub.daemen.edu is the culturally sensitive and simplified version of my.daemen.edu. It is configured with PHP 7.1 and MySQL 5.5. It is available to Branch and COPE campus students. It was created in September 2017. Hub is also under git version control. It contains only necessary URLs to the sites and services for this community:
Main Resources: Blackboard, Mail, Library, Swivl, Chalk & Wire
As well as: Self Service, Student Information (Education), Student Information (ABA), Technology (Office 365, Tech Support), Academic Calendar, Course Evaluations (IDEA), Directory, Prepay for Future Students, Upload Forms, DASA Payment (Not for Tuition)
OneLogin (http://daemen.onelogin.com/) – In the Summer of 2019 OneLogin began to replace CAS as the college identity provider. The 4 core apps Self Service, G Suite, Blackboard, and MyDaemen were configured and switched over at launch. Nearly all apps and services that used CAS have moved to OneLogin. OneLogin has many features that allow users to better manage their own accounts such as password reset, security questions, SMS, and mobile phone app integration. OneLogin is entirely SAML based. A full list of OneLogin apps.
Central Authentication Server or CAS (https://cas.daemen.edu/) – CAS authenticates using its connection to Active Directory. CAS has been deprecated and will be shut down at the end of 2020.
User Admin
The Edit Information page is available to all employees to update their directory, contact, and office hour information.
This is the primary way we interact with our Active Directory members, including editing AD fields for individual accounts.
Maintain AD group membership including bulk operations. Only a small subset of groups are actively maintained.
Bulk import of new students for the creation and maintenance of AD and Google accounts including exporting account lists by OU.
Working with Information Management and Human Resources to streamline and improve student and employee account creation.
Google Cloud Directory Sync (GCDS) – formally known as Google Active Directory Sync or GADS. This creates and maintains user accounts and membership of select groups in Google Apps. Active Directory is queried 3 times each day and GADS makes all necessary changes.
Username Lookup and Password Change – a new student uses this to look up their username and set their password for the first time.
Student-Alumni script for easily moving students between Student, StudentRemote and Alumni OUs. This also checks and places students, remote students, and alumni in the correct email lists (AD Groups).
The Student AD account creation script has been created to automate the daily accounts moved to student status from Colleague via Information data.
Management Resident Hall, Academic Level, Location, and Student Employees AD groups
Other Essential Systems
Committee members system and meeting contents
Course Evaluation Results from IDEA Center (Spring 2016 and earlier) and Scantron
Blackboard Course Requests – A system the requires Colleague data imports for courses and is used to created courses automatically in Blackboard via the SIS API integration.
Registered Student Registration Search for Chairs and Advisors – System for connecting advisors with students to show any system holds preventing registration, any leaves, and other information such as veteran or student-athlete status.
Offices and Services A to Z is a list of all academic departments and administrative offices. Additionally, other topics and services that do not fall into one of the formal offices or departments are listed and are maintained by Web Communications.
The Directory (https://my.daemen.edu/directory) is the fastest and most up-to-date method for finding people’s contact information. The information is dynamically generated from MySQL tables that routinely sync data from our Active Directory servers. Many student and employee photos are displayed once an employee logins with their MyDaemen account.
When someone selects a person’s email address from the Directory, they are directed to the General Information Form.
Course Central – Before and at the beginning of each semester full semester course lists are exported from Colleague and imported into this system. Data from here is used in many other systems: Cancellations, Blackboard Requests, Learning Center Find a Coach, etc.
Departments and Offices Admin – This system provides a list of academic departments and administrative offices. This list is used in many other MyDaemen systems most importantly in the Directory.
Semester Central – This system provides a list of semester information used by a wide variety of systems that are semester time-sensitive. Once a week this data is updated with Colleague via Informer data.
Building Central – This system provides a list of building information used by a wide variety of systems.
Significant projects completed, upgraded, or under development include (Cross over with Information Management and Web Communications):
ProcessMaker
COVID-19 Campus Clearance
COVID-19 Campus Waves
COVID-19 Daily Screening
COVID-19 Federal Stimulus Award
Incomplete Grade Change Form 2020
COVID Grading Form
Library Guest Access
New executive dashboard
Find your Career Path added
Audit Database
Transfer Equivalency rebuild
Academic Festival proposals changes
Graduation Information
Portal Feedback
ADP Workforce Now SSO and API work
Conflict Of Interest added to portal
Symplicity Data Uploads changes
Break Housing Admin
Portal Dashboard
Mailchimp Admin
Generate Mail Signature system
SafeColleges data via SFPT
Den Stations Admin for portal module
Mongoose Cadence data updates via API
Handshake data API via Kettle
Resident List, Academic Level, Location, Student Employee group population automation
